Coimbatore: Chief conservator of forest on Thursday said he had dissolved the three-member Vishaka committee that was formed to probe sexual harassment charges against a forester and constituted a new five-member committee,
comprising senior officials.
The new committee would be headed by a senior woman official from Salem circle, said Deepak Srivastava, chief conservator of forest, Coimbatore circle. “The committee will start its inquiry on September 5 and the members have been directed to submit the report 20 days after the commencement of probe.”
Meanwhile, members of the previous committee said the decision to dissolve the panel wasn’t communicated to them. However, officials with the office of chief conservator of forest said they had issued a circular in this regard to all the three committee members.
“None of the committee members have received the circular till date. About 90% of the inquiry was completed and reports were submitted before the office of district forest officer,” said an official source, who didn’t want to be named. “What is the point of dissolving the committee when the probe is almost completed?”
The case pertains to a complaint lodged by a 42-year-old temporary computer operator attached to Karadimadai section of Madukarai range with district forest officer (DFO) D Venkatesh, saying S Kannan, a forester in the same range, had been sexually harassing her. The compliant was lodged on July 23.
Based on the complaint, the DFO had formed a three-member committee comprising R Kalamani, a superintendent in the district forest office, G P Vijayalakshmi, a typist in the same office, and N I Jalaluddin, an environment activist, to probe the issue a month ago.
“The committee was headed by a junior level official to the accused forester. Also, the inquiring officials and the forester were attached to the same division. When a committee is formed with officials from the same division, pressure could be mounted to scuttle the probe,” Srivastava said explaining the rationale behind dissolving the three-member committee.
The new committee was constituted a couple of days ago, he said. “Its members do not have any connection with the forester, who is facing the sexual harassment charges.”
Srivastava also said he had proposed the headquarters to transfer the accused forester to a different circle, to conduct a fair inquiry.
“Constituting a new committee and starting the inquiry from the scratch will only delay justice to the victim,” the official source told TOI.
